Brett Sholtis/Transforming Health
| 01.12.18

In this March 7, 2017 file photo, Paul "Rip" Connell, CEO of Private Clinic North, a methadone clinic, shows a 35 mg liquid dose of methadone at the clinic in Rossville, Ga. May 9 remarks by Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price about medication-assisted treatment for opioid addiction have reignited a debate in the world of addiction and recovery. Officials for the planned facility in Bern Township, Berks County have not said whether this center would distribute maintenance drugs. (AP Photo/Kevin D. Liles, File)

At a meeting this week in Bern Township, Berks County about 125 residents voiced concerns over a planned mental health and drug treatment facility.

Resident Christi Roberts says some residents are worried the facility will bring one aspect of the opioid crisis -- methadone clinics, and those who rely on methadone -- into their backyards.

Roberts and her husband have spent the past two years building a home on a wooded one-acre lot in Bern Township's Greenfield neighborhood.

If Tennessee-based Acadia Healthcare and Reading-based Tower Health get needed permits, Roberts' yard will be near the planned 82-acre center.

Roberts is concerned about her children's safety in an area where she says drug users will be coming and going. She's also concerned that the facility could change its mission later to include methadone distribution, something she says would be bad for nearby residents.

More clinics that provide methadone and other maintenance drugs for opioid addicts have opened in recent years as the crisis continues to grow. Over 5,200 Pennsylvanians died of opioid overdoses in 2017.

Acadia and Tower haven't said the facility will distribute maintenance drugs for those addicted to opioids such as methadone or suboxone. However, Roberts says other Acadia-owned facilities in Pennsylvania eventually evolved into methadone clinics. She points to Pottstown Comprehensive Treatment Center and Discovery House of Harrisburg Comprehensive Treatment Center, both of which were confirmed to provide maintenance drugs.

"I know a lot of the Acadia clinics have gone from what they proposed for us now, this mental health clinic, and then about a year later they've changed to meth clinics," Roberts says. "We don't want methadone in our back yard."

Tower Health officials say it's working with the township to determine "the scope" of the center but wouldn't say whether it was open to distributing methadone. Acadia didn't respond to requests for comment, and the Bern Township supervisor wasn't available for comment.

Tower has said that the facility would have 120 beds and would stabilize patients with serious mental illnesses as well as substance abuse disorders.

Town supervisors have delayed a vote on a conditional use permit for the developer.